International Law in Ancient Societies and India
Although European writers, with a tremendous sense of pride, assert that modern international law is a product exculsively of the Western European Christian civilization, and that it is not more than four or five hunderd years old, there is little doubt that ancient societies like India, China, Egypt and Assyria had their own much older systems of inter-state conduct which had parallel, if not similar, rules of inter-state relations as modern internaional law. It is true, however, that these earlier systems were generally confined to their own civilizations in diffenrent geographical areas because means of travel and communications were neither so efficient nor fast. But there were occasionally inter-state trade relations, exchange of diplomats, and conclusion of agreements and treaties between countries far apart from each other. India had frequent trade relations with Western Asia, Greece and Rome since at least the first century of the Christian era. Indian states had even more frequent trade and commercial relations with the countries in the East, like Burma, Malaya, Indo-China, the Philippines and even China and Japan. Indian, Chinese and Malay ships regularly voyaged each other‟s coast
